FOOTNOTE

A footnote is a string of text placed at the bottom of a page in a book or document or at the end of a text. The note can provide an author's comments on the main text or citations of a reference work in support of the text, or both. A footnote is normally flagged by a number immediately following that portion of the text .

1.Peter Roche, Latin for Dummies (New York: Academic press, 1997), p. 23.

 Footnotes are notes at the foot of the page

while endnotes are collected under a separate heading at the end of a chapter in a book or a document. Unlike footnotes, endnotes have the advantage of not affecting the image of the main text, but may cause inconvenience to readers who have to move back and forth between the main text and the endnotes.

 Occasionally a number between brackets or

parentheses is used instead, thus: [1]. Typographical devices such as the asterisk (*) or dagger () may also be used to point to footnotes; the traditional order of these symbols is *, , , , , .[1]

The main purpose of a footnote is to acknowledge the source of any direct or indirect quotation of any idea, opinion, or factual material, which you have taken from another author or authority. Footnotes can also be used to expand, or supplement statements made in the body of your essay with information.

 PURPOSE:

The principal purpose of a footnote is to acknowledge the source of your idea, not only to give credit where it is due, but also to substantiate your point to show that someone else agrees with you. A footnote should enable the reader to find the source .

 Ibid. (Latin, short for ibidem, meaning the same place) is the

term used to provide an endnote or footnote.

Example 4 Peter. Vijh, Latin for Dummies (New York: Academic, 1997), p.

23. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid., p. 29. 7 Al Azif, The Necronomicon (Petrus de Dacia,1994). 8 Ibid. 4, at 34 The reference, 5, is the same as 4: E. Vijh, Latin for dummies on page 23, whereas the reference, 6, refers to the same work but at a different location, namely page 29. Intervening entries require a reference to the original citation in the form Ibid. <citation #>, as 8. Notice that ibid. is an abbreviation where the last two letters of the word are not present; thus, it always takes a period (or full stop) in both British and American usage

 Op. cit. is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase opus citatum est,

meaning "the work has been cited". It is used in an endnote or footnote to refer the reader to the name of the work, publication or book referenced in the footnote, whilst avoiding the need to restate the full title of the work in the footnote itself. Op. cit. Op. cit. should never therefore be used on its own, which would be meaningless, but must give a brief clue as to which work is referred to, for example "Smith op. cit" refers the reader to a work by "Smith" Example Footnotes 9-11: (9) R. Milan, Art of Latin Grammar (Academic: New York, 1997), p. 23. (10) G. Wiki, Language and Its Uses (Blah Ltd.: Old York, 2000), p. 17. (11) Milan, op. cit., p. 5. The reference no. 11 refers to the last cited work by the author R. Milan, and hence, it is the same as in no 9 (R. Milan, Art of Latin Grammar), although the page referred to is different.

Loc. cit. (Latin, short for loco citato, meaning "in the place cited") is a footnote or endnote term used to repeat the title and page number for a given author. Loc. cit. is used in place of ibid. when the reference is not only to the work immediately preceding, but also refers to the same page. Loc. cit. is also used instead of op. cit. when reference is made to a work previously cited and to the same page in that work. As such, loc. cit. is never followed by volume or page numbers. Sample usage Example 1: 9. R. Milan, "Art of Latin grammar" (Academic, New York, 1997), p. 23. 10. Loc. cit. In the above example, the loc. cit. in reference #10 refers to reference #9 in its entirety, including page number. Note that loc. cit. is capitalized in this instance. Example 2: 9. R. Milan, "Art of Latin grammar" (Academic, New York, 1997), p. 23. 10. G. Wiki, "Blah and its uses" (Blah Ltd., Old York, 2000), p. 12. 11. Milan, loc. cit. In the second example, the loc. cit. in reference #11 refers to reference #9, including page number.